Tunnel report buries Labor

Motoring ahead ... Bob Carr gives a press conference in the tunnel
shortly before its official opening.Photo: Nick Moir

By Alex MitchellFebruary 19, 2006

EXCLUSIVE: INQUIRY LEAK

THE former Carr cabinet and the Roads and Traffic Authority
receive stinging criticism from State Parliament's select committee
investigating the Cross City Tunnel shambles.

The all-party committee calls for tougher cabinet control of
infrastructure projects financed by the private sector.

It recommends the appointment of a cabinet standing committee on
infrastructure and planning to oversee all large-scale
infrastructure projects.

The committee also suggests that public-private partnerships,
known as PPPs, should be governed by stricter guidelines to prevent
the public outcry that followed the official opening of the Cross
City Tunnel.

A draft copy of the report was circulated to the eight MPs on
the committee last week and the finally agreed version will be
tabled on February 28 when Parliament resumes after a 10-week
break.

By recommending significant changes to the management of private
sector-financed infrastructure, the committee has implicitly
rejected the evidence of former premier Bob Carr, former treasurer
Michael Egan and two former planning ministers, Andrew Refshauge
and Craig Knowles.

They boasted about the success of the tunnel project and praised
the fact that it was built at no financial cost to taxpayers.

Mr Carr, now a Macquarie Bank lobbyist, even congratulated the
RTA on its handling of the contract negotiations while Mr Egan said
the tunnel was "a great project, a very fine project" adding: "I
was in it right up to my little fat neck."

But MPs on the select committee have concluded that management
of the Cross City Tunnel project was, if not a shambles, less than
well handled. Their rebuke is even more significant because the
committee, chaired by upper house MP Fred Nile, is dominated by
Labor MPs.

While Mr Carr, ex-ministers and RTA bosses lauded the "up-front
fee" of $96 million paid by the tunnel builders, the committee
recommends that charging up-front fees be abandoned on all future
projects.

The committee has been persuaded by evidence that the RTA
grabbed the up-front fee because it was in budget difficulties. But
the payment was misguided because it led to a much higher toll for
motorists plus more road closures to funnel traffic into the
tunnel.

The committee's final report on guidelines to manage major
public-private infrastructure projects will be tabled on April
4.